NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 11 – A date is yet to be set when top government officials will begin recording statements with the International Criminal Court investigators.
Justice Kalpana Rawal who was appointed last week to help security chiefs take down the statements said on Monday that procedures to aid the exercise are yet to be enacted before a date is determined.
“I am not able to tell when the exercise will begin because relevant authorities are yet to put in place the necessary procedures to help jump-start the probe,\’\’ she said in an interview with Capital News in her chambers.
The judge whose mandate will be under Section 78 of the International Crimes Act, said that when the moment comes she will do her best.
At the moment Justice Rawal is presiding over civil matters listed before her at the High Court.
The judge is expected to witness the recording of statements from five Provincial Commissioners (PCs) six Provincial Police Officers (PPOs) and several District Commissioners, who served in the areas that were hit by the 2008 post election violence.
The said officials had declined to record statements citing the provisions of the International Crimes Act regarding reluctant witnesses.
The law requires that they record statements before a judge. The officers targeted by the ICC are those who served in Rift Valley, Nyanza, Western, Nairobi and Coast provinces at the time of the violence.
The PCs in office at the time were Ernest Munyi (Coast), Abdul Mwasera (Western), Hassan Noor Hassan (Rift-Valley), James Waweru (Nairobi) and Paul Olando (Nyanza).
The PPOs include Grace Kahindi and Antony Kibuchi (Nyanza), Everet Wasige (Rift Valley), King’ori Mwangi (Coast), Francis Munyambu (Western) and Njue Njagi (Nairobi).
The international Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has indicated that he will indict about four to six Kenyans to face at least two offences under the International Crimes. The post election violence in Kenya saw more than 1,500 Kenyans killed and 500,000 others uprooted from their homes.
Meanwhile the Government is expected to hand to ICC investigators copies of minutes of meetings of the National Security Council at anytime.
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